Since the advent of wireless networks and GPS (Global Positioning System) satellites, specialized wireless devices have been installed in vehicles to facilitate fleet operations management. Such devices have also been installed in virtually anything that moves or is moved to enable asset tracking. These monitoring devices may interface with many kinds of other vehicular-based devices and systems to collect information and/or data and to transmit this to a remote server and/or fleet manager. When used by fleet operators, the monitoring devices provide a wealth of useful information such as driver behaviour, compliance with traffic rules, compliance with government regulations, and detailed time tracking.
To enhance use of vehicle buses in a vehicle electronic network, standards have been developed that describe mainly the data link layer and some aspects of the physical layer. Other protocol layers are left to a network designer's choice. Each vehicle manufacturer may be provided with parameter group numbers for their own proprietary use. As such, a vehicle bus standard may define a large number of parameters that may or may not be available on a bus installed on a particular vehicle. Vehicle manufacturers and equipment manufacturers for vehicles decide which parameters to support. Vehicle manufacturers and equipment manufacturers for vehicles may also add unique proprietary parameters. Internal calculations based on sensed values of parameters may be different from manufacturer to manufacturer, and there are no specific standards to which these calculations must adhere. As a result, this introduces limitations for vehicle owners and asset managers seeking to consistently monitor a number of vehicles of different models and/or makes that may have varying operation and performance criteria. Proprietary standards may therefore affect the usefulness of a remote asset monitoring system.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,751,098 to Faus discloses a method of monitoring CANbus (Controller Area Network bus) information. Original parameters associated with sensors are converted into virtual sensors to provide selective vehicle information to an equipment management system. A terminal may then apply logic to the virtual sensor by performing calculations indicating a comparison against a threshold, validations, and alert generations, for example.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2008/0140278 to Breed discloses providing a vehicle with software to enable it to operate and interact with components thereof. Updating the vehicle software occurs via a wireless transmission from one or more remote locations, e.g., a location maintained by a dealer or manufacturer of the vehicle. The software may be diagnostic software for a diagnostic module, which diagnoses the operability of components of the vehicle.